New orders fell 2.9 percent month-on-month in July, confounding expectations for an increase of 0.5 percent. The fall was also sharper than the 0.2 percent decrease posted in June.
Further, this was the fastest decline since January, when prices dropped 5.4 percent.
When large-scale orders are excluded, new orders were 0.7 percent higher than in the previous month.
Foreign orders declined 3.1 percent in July. Here, orders from the euro area were down 3.8 percent, and orders from outside the euro area slid 2.8 percent. Domestic orders contracted 2.5 percent.
On a yearly basis, the decline in factory orders was 3.4 percent versus a 1.7 percent rise in the previous month.
Powered by Commodity Insights